Managers are healthy people that aren't too screwed up

A new book by a well-respected author on business practice will look at the role of modern managers.

Dr Henry Mintzberg, the Cleghorn professor of management studies at McGill University and a well-known management scholar, believes that there have not been enough serious studies of managers and the essential work they do in organisations.

In 1973, in his book The Nature of Managerial Work, Dr Mintzberg studied management skills and what managers actually do by following five executives through a working week.

He has now returned to the subject with a new book called Managing, due out in September, which saw him studying 29 managers in action, ranging from a chief executive officer of a major bank to a manager of refugee camp.

Discussing his findings, Dr Mintzberg, told the Wall St Journal: "We're all flawed, but basically, effective managers are people whose flaws are not fatal under the circumstances."

He added: "Maybe the best managers are simply ordinary, healthy people who aren't too screwed up."

Dr Mintzberg warned that there is too much managing through information: "Where people sit in their offices and think they're very clever because they deem that you will increase sales by ten per cent, or out the door you go."